1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic meeting system, an information processor, and a recording medium, and more particularly relates to an electronic meeting system in which a plurality of clients access virtual space provided by a server to exchange information mutually, an information processor for clients, and a computer-readable recording medium having a recorded program for the computer to function as a client.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, the conventional electronic meeting system in which a plurality of clients access virtual space provided by a server and exchange information each other has been known.
In such a system, when a meeting is held between users located far apart each other, first a meeting group is formed by specifying addresses of clients, namely personal computers or the like, which meeting participants use. Next, each user starts up an application program used by the meeting group, thus it is possible to exchange messages, and the meeting is ready for discussion.
At that time, meeting information for displaying meeting situation is displayed on a common screen (screen commonly viewed by all participants) of a display apparatus of each personal computer of participants, and the display content is changed correspondingly to operation performed by each participant on the common screen. As described hereinabove, each participant can overlook the meeting situation on the personal computer of the participant itself, and participates in the meeting by writing opinions of the participant itself.
It is important for a user to easily understand the development of the meeting because a user is not always attending the meeting.
Heretofore, a method in which the flow of meeting is expressed with temporal history has been known as a method for understanding the development of a meeting. Roughly classified, two types of methods used for a such purpose have been known.
(1) The method for showing temporal history of a meeting in the form of diagram
The most generally used method is a method in which speeches and opinions in a meeting are displayed on a common screen and speeches and opinions given to the precedent speeches and opinions are displayed successively under hierarchically, as it is seen in a news group or electronic bulletin board. A user can know the temporal history of speeches and opinions from the display.
Some derivations of this method have been proposed. For example, in xe2x80x9cElectronic meeting supporting systemxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-236131, a method is proposed in which an attribute value for representing the phase of a meeting is added to a speech for clear understanding of temporal history of the discussion in each phase of the meeting. Further in xe2x80x9cElectronic meeting system having proceeding preparation functionxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-2540, a method is proposed in which a chairman or manager who holds a meeting marks important information among various information spoken during the meeting to provide meeting information in which only important speeches are shown. Yet further, in xe2x80x9cElectronic bulletin board browserxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 9-106331, a method is proposed in which articles are grouped by means of referential relation among articles and the grouped articles are displayed.
On the other hand, in xe2x80x9cMethod and apparatus for processing information of electronic meeting systemxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-266632, a method in which xe2x80x9cspeech chartxe2x80x9d is used is proposed. In this method, speech time period of each participant is expressed in the form of chart by means of a mechanism for displaying speech time zone and the speech content of each meeting participant.
(2) The method for expressing the temporal history of a meeting
The most basic method is a method in which a meeting is recorded by use of a tape recorder or video recorder and then the recorded information is reproduced as required. As the recording method used in this case, in xe2x80x9cElectronic meeting systemxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 6-178296, a method in which audio or video switching time and finish time are added to and recorded in speech information is proposed, and further in xe2x80x9cApparatus for automatic preparation of documentxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 5-35441, a method in which only the information corresponding to recording permission phrases set previously is recorded is proposed.
On the other hand, as the reproducing method used in this case, for example, in xe2x80x9cMethod for managing cooperative work information and system for supporting cooperative workxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-40058, a method for reproduction of discussion history is proposed in which common information generated in a cooperative work is layered in information unit for managing and layers are overlapped along the time series correspondingly to the request of a user. Further in xe2x80x9cMeeting information recording method, meeting information recording apparatus, and meeting information reproducing apparatusxe2x80x9d disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. Hei 10-40068, a method is proposed in which operation and information on a common screen are extracted simultaneously with audio information to reproduce the discussion history by use of both audio and video media.
However, the above-mentioned conventional arts are disadvantageous in various points described hereunder.
In detail, in the former method for expressing the temporal history, temporal progress and change of various information are expressed on a two-dimensional plane, therefore when certain information is compared with other information (for example, the temporal progress of meeting and speech chart of a speaker are compared simultaneously), the respective information is displayed on separate windows for comparison. However, it is required to open two windows simultaneously, therefore this method is disadvantageous in that the operation is complicated. Further it is required for a user to correlate separate information in his head, therefore this method is disadvantageous in that it is difficult to understand intuitively the display content.
On the other hand, in the latter method for expressing the temporal history, the information to be reproduced is retrieved and the retrieved information is reproduced, the reproduction requires some amount of time, therefore this method is disadvantageous in that some amount of time is required to understand the temporal history of the meeting.
Further, both methods are disadvantageous commonly in that the referable meeting information and the method used for reference are limited previously by the system, therefore it is difficult to understand and analyze the meeting from various view points of respective participants depending on the meeting situation.
The present invention is accomplished to solve the problems described hereinabove, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic meeting system for supporting participants so that respective participants can overlook the meeting information from various standpoints correspondingly to the meeting situation and understand the temporal progress of the meeting intuitively.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an information processor for reproducing only the required part of the displayed meeting information easily.
To solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention provides an electronic meeting system where a plurality of clients access virtual space provided by a server for exchanging information, wherein the above-mentioned sever is provided with a first communication unit for communicating information between the clients, a first analysis unit for analyzing the information when the first communication unit receives the information transmitted from the client, a first attribute extraction unit for extracting the attribute included in the information if the information is judged to be new information to be written in the virtual space as the result of analysis performed by the first analysis unit, a first memory unit for storing the attribute extracted by the first attribute extraction unit and the information which are correlated, and an information management unit which manages information stored in the first memory unit, and if the information is judged to be information that requires to be referred to the information stored in the first memory unit as the result of analysis performed by the first analysis unit, then extracts the corresponding information and supplies it to the first communication unit to return it to the client, and the above-mentioned client is provided with a second communication unit for communicating information with the server, an input unit for receiving desired information input, a second analysis unit for analyzing the information transmitted from the server and received from the second communication unit or the information entered by the input unit, a second attribute extraction unit for extracting the attribute included in the information if the information is judged to be information to be displayed as an output as the result of analysis performed by the second analysis unit, a second memory unit for storing the attribute extracted by the second attribute extraction unit, a selection unit for selecting a desired attribute from among attributes stored in the second memory unit, and a display unit for displaying an element in accordance with the information written in the virtual space in the form of display type corresponding to the attribute selected by the selection unit.
In the server, the first communication unit communicates information with the client. The first analysis unit analyzes the information when the first communication unit receives information transmitted from the client. The first attribute extraction unit extracts the attribute included in the information if the information is new information to be written in the virtual space as the result of analysis performed by the first analysis unit. The first memory unit stores the attribute extracted by the first attribute extraction unit and the information in the correlated relation. The information management unit manages the information stored in the first memory unit, and if the information is judged to be referred to the information stored in the first memory unit as the result of analysis performed by the first analysis unit, then extracts the corresponding information, supplies the extracted information to the first communication unit to return it to the client. In the client, the second communication unit communicates information with the server. The input unit receives desired information input. The second analysis unit analyzes the information transmitted from the server which is received by the second communication unit, or the information supplied from the input unit. The second attribute extraction unit extracts the attribute included the information if the information is judged to be displayed as output as the result of analysis performed by the second analysis unit. The second memory unit stores the attribute extracted by the second attribute extraction unit. The selection unit selects the desired attribute from among attributes stored in the second memory unit. The display unit displays the element in accordance with the information written in the virtual space in the form of display type corresponding to the attribute selected by the selection unit.
The present invention provides an information processor served as a client for taking access to virtual space provided by a server to exchange information, which information processor is provided with a communication unit for communicating information with the server, an input unit for receiving a desired information input, an analysis unit for analyzing the information transmitted from the server which is received by the communication unit or the information supplied from the input unit, an attribute extraction unit for extracting the attribute included in the information if the information is judged to be displayed as output as the result of analysis performed by the analysis unit, a memory unit for storing the attribute extracted by the attribute extracting unit, a selection unit for selecting a desired attribute from among attributes stored in the memory unit, and a display unit for displaying an element in accordance with the information written in the virtual space in the form of display type which is selected by the selection unit.
In the above-mentioned information processor, the communication unit communicates information with the server. The input unit receives desired information input. The analysis unit analyzes the information transmitted from the server which is received by the communication unit or the information supplied from the input unit. The attribute extraction unit extracts the attribute included in the information if the information is judged to be displayed as output as the result of analysis performed by the analysis unit. The memory unit stores the attribute extracted by the attribute extraction unit. The selection unit selects a desired attribute from among attributes stored in the memory unit. The display unit displays the element in accordance with the information written in the virtual space in the form of display type corresponding to the attribute selected by the selection unit.